Benefits Of LDAP

LDAP stands for Lightweight Directory Access Protocol and it is a protocol for both editing and reading directories over IP networks. Here, a directory refers to a set of organized records such as telephone directories that contain lists of organizations and people with phone numbers and addresses in every record. The following are benefits of LDAP.

1. Increases security

The current LDAP version supports SASL, which is an important internet standard responsible for allowing clients to select the specific authentication protocols they wish to utilize. In addition, LDAP also supports TLS, which encrypts the entire data passing between the server and client. This protects the information from any security breach.

2. Lightweight

Many programmers consider LDAP as lightweight in comparison to X.500 system that was mainly built on OSI layers. The reason is that LDAP carries fewer operations than the X.500. Even though LDAP is largely based on the X.500, it is more simplified and adjusted to custom requirements. This benefits the programmers as they can easily implement and also connect to numerous services.

3. One directory

An essential LDAP benefit is that it enables users to make use of one information directory containing user data. It also offers an access to that directory from various services. For instance, an information directory can be utilized for email and web browsers among other services. Furthermore, time savings achieved from offering one central directory for various services is also a huge benefit.

4. Simple to use

LDAP is very simple to use and users can add extra information to the directory as required by the organization. This information includes things like phone numbers, office location, addresses and other vital data.

Major demerits of LDAP include the poor performance with regards to write transactions and also restrictions on data size that can be stored.